New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady celebrates his 37-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Brandon Lloyd during the first quarter of Monday night’s game against the Houston Texans in Foxborough, Mass. New England cruised to a 42-14 victory.

Q: Not sure if you can have a must-win game when you’ve already clinched the division and a home playoff game, but this Sunday sort of feels like it even though we saw (Monday) night how that must-win mentality worked out for Houston. It just doesn’t feel like the Broncos have had a win against a quality opponent since maybe Pittsburgh. And unlike New England … the Broncos struggle to blow people out. So, if you lose away games to Atlanta, New England and then Baltimore, does that give you any confidence you can win a road game in the playoffs?

A: Mark, Monday night’s game is exactly why so many coaches shy away from the must-win label on any game. Because if you do not win the must-win game, then, as a coach, you are left to pick up the pieces with a team as you then try to convince them the loss didn’t really hurt that much as everybody moves on to the next game.

But the Texans are also simply on a different part of the developmental curve than the Patriots are. The Texans made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history last season. And this is really their first trip through a season at the front of the line, so they were obviously trying to find something to get them over the next hurdle.

Overall, though, the best team doesn’t always win the Super Bowl, but the hottest team usually does.

The Giants were 7-7 at one point last season before becoming the hottest team in the league down the stretch and into the postseason.

Right now, the Broncos, with eight consecutive wins, and the Patriots, with seven consecutive wins, are the two hottest teams in the league. The next longest current win streak is four by the Washington Redskins.

The question you raise is likely the biggest question people in the league have about the Broncos.

But the same people who ask that question also simply say when looking at playoff hopefuls, you always look at the quarterback first, because at some point that’s the guy who will have to lift his team through a tough spot.

The Broncos are in pretty good shape there with a future Hall of Famer. The question with that is really are they good enough to survive, on the road, in the playoffs, if Peyton Manning isn’t at his best?

They certainly don’t want to find that out, but this group of Broncos is still largely an unproven commodity against the league’s elite.

Their winning streak is certainly impressive, as is their current offensive and defensive standing. They are the only team in the league ranked in the top five in both. But their 10 wins have come against teams that are a combined 39-65 (.375).

While the Broncos have no control over the troubles the teams in their own division continue to have, or even over their schedule, their current resume is also the teams they have played, nothing more, nothing less.

The three teams that have defeated the Broncos are a combined 32-7 (.821), two of those on the road — in New England and in Atlanta.

But those three losses were all in the first five weeks of the season when Manning was still settling into the team’s offense and the team’s defense was still trying to work through Jack Del Rio’s scheme in his first season as defensive coordinator.

And in two of the games — Atlanta and Houston — the Broncos, despite their wobbles, were still within one third-down stop of getting the ball back to Manning with plenty of time on the clock in what were six-point losses.

The loss to the Patriots is the one that is a red flag. The Broncos defense was not up to the task, on the road, of dealing with no-huddle offense and couldn’t stop the Patriots from running the ball against their nickel defense in particular.

And those, coincidentally, are two things they’ll likely have to deal with in Baltimore on Sunday. So, their trip to Baltimore isn’t a must-win in a go-to-the-playoffs sense, but there is something to be earned. A little playoff cred, perhaps.

Because, as Mike Shanahan has always said, there is a big difference between just going to the playoffs and “being able to do something special once you’re there.”

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